Crescentius, Peter

, or, as
he called himself, deCrescentiis, was born at Bologna
about 1233, and after studying philosophy, medicine, and
natural history, engaged in a course of law, but did not
take his doctor’s degree; by which means, although he
might plead causes, he was not at liberty to give lectures,
a privilege which belonged only to doctors. For thirty
years he was employed as assessor, or judge to the civil
and military governors of various cities in Italy, an office
of which he discharged the duties with impartiality, and
witb the happiest effect in preserving peace in those places.
In the mean time having contracted a taste for agriculture,
wherever he removed, he collected such observations as
might improve his knowledge of that branch, and on his
return to Bologna, which he had left during the political
dissentions there, he wrote in 1304 a treatise on agriculture, with the title of “Ruralia Commoda,” dedicated to
CharlesII. king of Naples. The first edition appeared in
147 1 at Augsburgh, fol. under the title of “Petri de Crescentiis rurahum commodorum, libri duodecim.” It was
translated into Italian, Florence, 1478, fol. but the two
best editions are that of Cosmo Giunta, ] 605, and that of
Naples, 1724, 2,vols. 8vo. It is a book of considerable
value, and gives a very correct display of the modes of
agriculture in Italy at that time, which are said to approximate nearer to the modern than could have been expected.
Crescentius died in 1320, nearly eighty-seven years old. 2

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